City SC hits the wall, City2 takes the top spot
Just as St. Louis City SC seems to have figured things out, its season is about to end.
City SC won for the third time in four games — with, amazingly, all the wins coming on the road — on Saturday night, beating an Austin team needing a win to clinch a playoff spot 3-1 at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas. It’s far too late to make any difference in this season for City SC, but it’s just in time to once again breathe optimism that maybe, just maybe, next season will be different.
“Yeah, I don’t want the season to stop,” said City SC interim coach David Critchley.
“We were in the process, and now the process gets to work,” said midfielder Marcel Hartel, who scored twice in the first half and is now tied for the team lead in goals with nine. “We can feel it in the team, we feel it on the field, off the field, that the process might be now everybody understands exactly what Critch wants from us. And of course, it’s sad that the season is over in two weeks, but we are looking forward. So I say it again: I hope Critch is staying and we can continue for 2026.”
That City SC has hit its stride just when the games — for them, at least — matter the least is par for this season that spent much of its time under a dark cloud. The win did assure City SC of not finishing with the worst record in the league and of finishing ahead of Sporting Kansas City. The win was the sixth for Critchley, which makes him the second winningest coach out of the four the club has had in its first three seasons.
City SC, like most of the league, is off next week and then will close the season on Oct. 18 against Real Salt Lake. About the only tangible thing at stake is where City SC will pick in the MLS SuperDraft. It will finish 13th in the Western Conference and either 24th or 25th overall.
“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Critchley said. “I think we’re definitely hitting another gear. We’re starting to see now what I see Monday to Friday is just now starting to happen on the Saturdays as well. So unfortunately, one game left, but I hope against RSL is probably in that place where they’ll be competing very hard. I’m excited for that challenge for the guys and unfortunately, the season is coming to an end.”
One key to the success of the team both on the road and in general is Hartel. He has four goals in the past four games, all of them coming on the road, and eight goal contributions in the tean’s past eight games. He’s had a hand in eight of the team’s past 14 goals and is third on the team all-time in scoring, behind only Klauss and Eduard Lowen, who have been with the team twice as long.
“Marcel has grown at a great rate,” Critchley said. “You definitely see the efficiency in his striking of fantastic goals, and how he scores, and the angles he creates for himself. He’s also finding those little pockets of space in the box, (like) for the second goal, so offensively, he’s helping the team impact those now with big-time plays. I’ve always known the case has been there for him. It was just going to take time. And then I have to give him a more sort of shout out. The way he defends now, the way he presses is exactly what I want to see from my central midfielder. So, he’s been fantastic on both sides of the ball. He’s getting better every single weekend, and I’m excited for his future.”
Hartel put City SC up 1-0 on a rocket from about 26 yards out, which was very similar to the one he had against San Jose two weeks ago. “I’m not bad (from outside) but it’s not my main skill, I would say,” he said. “But today in the warmup, I had the same shot from a similar area, so I got confident out of that and very happy that it worked out.”
City SC couldn’t hold the lead, giving up a goal eight minutes later off a corner kick that it did not handle well, but at the end of the first half, Hartel put the team back in the lead. Klauss made a run, passed to Pompeu on the left, who crossed into Hartel in the box. Hartel controlled the ball, moved to get that angle and finished with a shot on the outside of his right foot. “I had no option,” he said. “It was going very fast, and I had to react very quickly.”
That goal changed the game. City SC had played well in the first half but was about to go into the dressing room at halftime tied instead of ahead.
“We deserved (to be ahead) in my opinion,” Hartel said. “We played a good first half. We played a not-so-good second half. But in the end, we fight for the three points. We don’t concede any goals in the second half. I’m very proud for the team that we fight the second half to not concede any goals.”
In the past five games, City SC has allowed just six goals, and only one of them, in the Los Angeles FC game, came in the second half. The second half was a bit of a scramble, but the team has gotten much better at holding on, and it did exactly that. Simon Becher added a goal three minutes into stoppage time, after Mykhi Joyner and Brendan McSorley both missed promising chances, to clinch it. It was the third goal of the season for Becher and his first since June 25 in what has been a frustrating season for him. Alfredo Morales assisted on that goal and Hartel’s first as he filled in for Lowen, who missed the game for personal reasons. It’s the first game City SC has won this season of the 15 Lowen has not played in.
And then there’s the road. Going into the Montreal game on Sept. 13, City SC had two wins, 19 losses and 10 ties on the road in 2024 and 2025. Since then, it has gone 3-0 away from Energizer Park, with an aggregate score of 8-2.
“You start to see now the back-to-back-to-back road wins,” Critchley said. “And I think what I’ve seen on the road from these guys is we’re efficient in how we attack, and we are very bought into the defending principles that I tried to establish with the group, and that’s what’s helping us win football games right now.”
Too bad for them there’s only one left.
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Tom Timmermann | Post-Dispatch
Soccer reporter
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